Shifra Armon is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Florida. She earned the M.A. in Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago and the Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Armon is the sole author most recently, of Masculine Virtue in Early Modern Spain (Ashgate 2015). Her first book, Women and the Courtship Novel in Early Modern Spain came out with Rowman and Littlefield in 2002. She also contributed to the Routledge Research Companion of Early Modern Spanish Women Writers released earlier this year. Next month her article “The Spectacle of War in Cervantes’s Numancia” will appear in the Bulletin of the Comediantes. As Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Society and Culture at the University of Alberta this semester, Dr. Armon is preparing a manuscript entitled Staging Curiosity: Skepticism and Science on the Spanish Stage, 1650-1750.

Jennifer Faucher is a PhD student in the INDI program at Concordia University. Her area of study focuses on the role of the pícaro in early and late modern literature and art. Her interest in the pícaro, both early as well as late modern representations, is rooted in the notion that this fascinating character represents a powerful sociopolitical narrative that continues to reflect on the ethical implications of abuse and corruption throughout society.

Brad Nelson is Professor of Spanish and Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Development in the School of Graduate Studies at Concordia University. He is the author of The Persistence of Presence: Emblem and Ritual in Baroque Spain (2010), and a number of articles on the Baroque, Cervantes, María de Zayas, and Calderón de la Barca, as well as early and late modern expressions of hate speech. His current book project, tentatively titled Estranged Epistemologies: (neo)Baroque Science Fiction, studies the representation of emergent scientific theories in early and late modern literature and culture.

Vivek Venkatesh is an Associate Professor of Education and the Interim Associate Dean of Recruitment and Awards in the School of Graduate Studies at Concordia University. His work theorises how individual and communal identities influence the production and consumption of narratives of dystopia, racism, violence and terrorism in post-modern contexts, and is grounded in elements of social pedagogy, which - in an era of post-web 2.0 - advocate for the reflexive and inclusive adoption of mobile and digital media in creating frameworks for pluralistic dialogues. Venkatesh’s research is constantly shaped through interactions and mediations with the broader public via the internationally-renowned Grimposium festival and conference series which highlights music, writing and visual art from the underground extreme metal and electronic music scenes, and the SOMEONE (Social Media Every Day) portal which features multimedia and curriculum to counter hateful narratives in online environments.